Diocese of Los Angeles declines to endorse Anglican Covenant

[The Episcopal News, Los Angeles] -- Thanking the Anglican Communion for "taking this time of discernment" to develop the proposed Anglican Covenant, elected representatives of the Diocese of Los Angeles have issued a response declining to endorse the document.

"We cannot endorse a covenant that, for the first time in the history of The Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion, will pave the way toward emphasizing perceived negative differences instead of our continuing positive and abundant commonality," states the response, signed jointly by the diocese's bishops and General Convention deputation.*

A video report documenting the process by which Diocesan Convention initiated the response is here. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, and Executive Council member Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine jointly requested that each of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses provide responses by April 24 in preparation for review by General Convention's 2012 meeting in Indianapolis.

The full statement is here.

* Integrity Immediate Past President Susan Russell is a member of the Diocese of Los Angeles Deputation.